Eidolon

Starlight scoured the pages of her grimoire, frantically searching for something. In her hand she gripped the Staff of Sameness, an artifact she was attempting to pillage when Trixie had the misfortune of crossing her path.

Trixie knew that if she let the thief escape with the staff she herself would end up receiving the blame, being already on thin ice for ‘accidentally’ summoning a portion of the sea directly over her instructor’s desk, and being Twilight Sparkle’s friend could only buy you so much goodwill.

The storm of pages stopped as something caught Starlight’s eye, making her grin from ear to ear.

“What’s with the face?” shouted Trixie, half-expecting an archivist to shush her. Why was it that instructors were only ever around when they weren’t wanted?

The thieving girl laughed, raising the stolen staff in her left hand and reading aloud a lengthy incantation from her book. She chanted six distinct parts in all, each punctuated by tapping the staff on the wooden floor.

A hex, thought Trixie, and shivered. She had tried her hand at hexing before, but could not isolate her hatred from her other feelings, and without a catalytic focus, (like the staff,) a hex required something more than Trixie was willing to give.

Such spiteful magic would normally be prohibited by the campus’ enchantment, yet there were certain loopholes in place to allow palace agents to carry out their tasks unimpeded, loopholes that could be exploited with the right knowledge and wrong inclination.

Intended to smite one’s enemies, hexes were targeted magic and would thus be rendered non-lethal by the enchantment. However, it could still be used to incapacitate, in this case allowing the mage to abscond with the relic.

The staff began to shake violently, as if filled to bursting with hate. Starlight struggled to maintain her grip, but the ritual had been completed. Trixie would have to act fast.

Even though such magic was permissible, Trixie had learned there was a little known catch in order to prevent abuse: the enchantment allows for a spell to be cast in reaction to the hex by drawing on the school’s own reserves for the exchange.

Such esoteric knowledge was another bene- Another side-effect of her friendship with Twilight; one that Trixie hoped Miss Knee-Socks wouldn’t discover actually came in handy.

Trixie threw up her hand, all five fingers held apart, and began reciting Pi to as many decimal points as she could remember.

In the air before her a massive pentangle sketched itself, tying together the points of her body while a circle formed neatly around the edges.

From a realm beyond sight a shining figure emerged, suspended in the air, mane flowing in tune with the natural forces of another world. Its fists burned with cerulean flame and its white-eyed gaze was cast on the little hexer below.

Trixie tried to catch her breath, and found it difficult to inhale, as though half of it was going somewhere… else.

Starlight felt cold and vulnerable beneath its gaze, her confidence peeled back, leaving her shivering and exposed. Yet the spell had already been cast, and the venomous, dripping curse erupted from the staff.

The hex was meant for Trixie, and in this state should only seek her out, so it surprised Starlight when it veered toward the illuminated figure, and again when it was intercepted.

For a brief moment Trixie felt as though she were in two places at once. She saw the greenish orb up close, turning the revolting thing over in her hands.

“Impossible!” blurted Starlight, clapping her hands over her mouth as summoned thing’s attention returned to her. With a shriek she threw up her arms to no avail as her own curse was hurdled back at her, striking like a pale’s worth of mud.

She could hear her own words of spite echoing around her, the coiling phrases becoming corporeal, manifesting as luminous chains that shackled her wrists and ankles, shooting outwards to anchor themselves in the floor and ceiling. Abruptly they pulled taught, suspending her mid-air, her legs and arms spread.

Such was the nature of hexes that, short of running their course they would not be undone unless dispelled by an anti-mage or dis-enchanter, or otherwise removed by the caster themself, and Starlight had lost her grip on the staff, which clattered to the floor along with her spell-book, and she could not retrieve them.

Fortunately, the protective components of the enchantment nullified the sustained spell before it could drain her life, but not before it consumed her entire bag of materials, along with her cloak and tunic, her roguish leather shorts and hoof-boots, and finally her plain panties.

Trixie blushed, fixated the girl’s dainty features, illuminated by her own shared gaze. The last shred of dignity was stripped from Starlight along with her clothes, and she blacked out.

The chains shone bright, then shattered into shimmering shrapnel, releasing the unconscious Starlight to collapse on the floor.

The mysterious projection turned to meet Trixie’s gaze with its pale lamps, and for a moment there was a peculiar sense of looking through a mirror before the summoned thing withdrew into the circle.

Trixie gasped and dropped her hand, utterly exhausted, and the circle faded away.

A quick frisk ensured that all her clothing was intact, then she made her way over to the girl, kicking away the staff and grimoire.

Though somewhat sympathetic, Trixie also knew that sometimes humiliation comes before humility, a lesson she may never have learned if it weren’t for her friendship with Twilight…

Trixie replaced the staff and repaired the locking charm, shortening a candle to pay the cost. She hid the girl’s grimoire among the restricted tomes, which could be replaced at any time but required a librarian’s cypher to retrieve. Finally, she left the girl one of the extra pairs of panties she now kept in her materials bag, and with hardly a sound, slipped out into the cold air of the evening.

Author's Note:

I’ve been working on this on and off for some time, beginning with a vague idea and trying to trim it down while still including enough magi-technical stuff to help create the framework for Academy magic. I would like to expand upon the different classifications of spells in the future, and the roles of the Palace and the Academy, but haven’t begun writing another follow up at the time these notes were written.

In any case, hope you like it.